Rebecca Theard, left, and her brother, Paul, work in their Foodie Call food truck on Thursday, March 27, 2014 near the overpass in downtown in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)

An order of parmesan garlic fries served up from the Foodie Call food truck on Thursday, March 27, 2014 near the overpass in downtown in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)

Rachel Billow hands out a meal at her food truck, La Cocinita, which was parked near Tulane Ave. and S. Liberty St. in New Orleans. (Photo by Kathleen Flynn, Nola.com / The Times-Picayune)

Food truck owner Frankie Ostello puts on his apron and sets up the truck's kitchen before the lunch crowd comes on Wednesday afternoon. (Photo by Callaghan O'Hare, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

Frankie Ostello cuts a ten-inch pizza for a customer who is on his lunch break. Ostello, a Toronto native, was inspired to open his food truck when he realized that New Orleans didn't offer its residents a true Italian-style pizza. (Photo by Callaghan O'Hare, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

Not so long ago in New Orleans, food trucks were a novelty. In the last year, however, the rolling kitchens selling often upscale eats have multiplied like traffic on Poydras before a Saints game.

Make no mistake, the number of New Orleans food trucks is still tiny compared to cities such as Austin or Portland. But over the last several months, I've tried 20 trucks, including many of the commonly called "taco trucks" that rolled into town and stayed after Hurricane Katrina and the floods.

For the first time, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune offers a list of the top five food trucks in New Orleans. Here are my picks in alphabetical order:

Fat Falafel
The falafels are fried to order and topped with bright, fresh herbs (and a mound of handcut french fries for those who are really hungry).
On the menu:
Falafel sandwich; "fat" falafel sandwich with french fries; falafel plater; sides of french fries and hummus.

La Cocinita
Traditional Mexican and Latin American fare is done with extra care by this long-running truck.
On the menu:
Traditional arepas, tacos and quesadillas with fillings such as carne asada, lechon (braised pork) and roasted beets with black beans.

St. Clair Pizza
Installing a wood-burning oven on a bus might seem foolhardy, but the pies turned out by St. Clair show that some crazy ideas are actually brilliant.
On the menu:
Margherita pizza; diavolo pizza; verdura pizza with sun-dried tomato pesto, roasted asparagus and goat cheese; caprese sandwich; Italian sandwich.

Picking the best trucks wasn't easy. Looking back over the last few months, many of my best meals came not from restaurants but trucks -- often from trucks that didn't make the cut for my top five.

No doubt next year, when I revisit this list, the competition will be even stiffer. The new laws that went into effect this year allow for 100 food truck permits. New Orleans has a lot of room to grow.

Want to explore the Crescent City's food truck scene? Each entry in
our food truck guide
covers everything that you need to know, including cuisine, typical menu items and prices.

Food trucks, by nature, are moving targets. Many have regular stops. Almost every weekday for lunch, for example, you'll find several trucks parked outside the Tulane Medical Center on Tulane Avenue. To help you track down these rolling restaurants, we've embedded each truck's Twitter feed in its entry in our guide.